The Waratah Vets are Australia's largest veteran Cycling Club and in their latest Tempo Newsletter near the monkey and picture of the man in charge of America is a small promo "Like Father Like Son" which mentioned bicycles.net.au

mikesbytes wrote:You mentioned last year that your old man was in Waratah's.

True, a Group B rider, and he does quite a bit of work organising behind the scenes.

I rode my 2nd and 3rd races at Waratah Vets Olympic Park Tennis Centre in C grade last year. This year I'll ride B grade Vets, probably about twice at the Tennis Centre and once at Eastern Creek raceway.

531db wrote:Waratah are making a big call to be the largest Vet's club in Australia.Methinks ACT Vets might be a bit larger in terms of number of riders.

Actually, I said that but am relaying what I have heard so this may not fact. From the Waratah Vets website they mention that there are 350 regular riders on the role. Not certain if this is also the actual membership however.

As at 11 February 2007, ACT Vets CC had 213 current licenced riders.
Of course those licences are with the AVCC, not the ACF.
Licenced membership will increase somewhat in the next few months as those who ride the winter, but not the summer renew their licences.

Not to mention, ACT Vets has some of the nicest riders (and forum members) in the whole wide world!

I can help with the 'criterium' vs 'graded scratch' question (don't worry, I asked this not long ago).
The 'graded criterium' should be a race, with groups of riders based on current grades, over a short-ish course for a set time period, finishing with a number of laps. A bit like a longer version of a track sprint. My grade typically races over 20 minutes, plus 3 laps. So, we ride to test each other out / play with each others heads - call it what you will, then the real race starts over 3 laps. It's a lot of fun!
Our 'graded scratch' races are road races, over a certain distance with riders from each grade racing against each other. It could easily be a set numbers of laps of a shorter circuit, rather than a road race.

I suppose it should be mentioned that the ACT Vets CC actually ride real 'road races' on public roads in the ACT/nearby NSW, not 'longtrack crits' as occur at such venues as Eastern Creek and Lansdowne Park in the Sydney area.

531db wrote:I suppose it should be mentioned that the ACT Vets CC actually ride real 'road races' on public roads in the ACT/nearby NSW, not 'longtrack crits' as occur at such venues as Eastern Creek and Lansdowne Park in the Sydney area.

I don't qualify for the vets, not old enough however do know that they havn't had an easy 'ride' regarding riding routes. Originally they were doing a lot of racing on public roads around Homebush (none the less a circuit) however the NSW Police got a little uptight and effectively banned it. (I am still relaying info... not necessarily fact) however I am certain that the vets would like to ride more road routes however the Police restrictions block the way. I did some road marshalling for a race up in Callgary, and I know that they still ride up their (not sure if it actually a club race though).

As I understand, there are a lot of rules/laws that are more relaxed in Canberra, and it was built with good foundations for recreation.

Mkebytes, Eastern Creek is a good track.. there is plenty of rubber on the ground making it good for cornering... except in the rain it is very slippery.

AUbicycles wrote: As I understand, there are a lot of rules/laws that are more relaxed in Canberra, and it was built with good foundations for recreation.

Before I start, all of this post is made in a non-argumentative toneI think that there's more to it that that. The relationship with local police and councils is something that the club works very hard at. We present our program to ACT Policing and NSW Police and surrounding councils well in advance (eg. from memory, the 2007 calendar was submitted in November last year) for approval and we abide by their decisions. We got some idea of the level of scrutiny that goes into the calendar and the care with which it is made when one of the Councils (the Club deals with three) requested a change to one event due to roadworks - and the suggestions that they made regarding alternatives were really helpful.
We regularly see ACT Parks and Wildlife rangers at Tidbinbilla and Uriarra events and they always say "G'day!".
The Committee reminds us of our obligations as Race Directors and Marshals - in fact, we (the membership as a whole) got chided only last week as the number of people prepared to marshal had dropped off a bit. We operate on the understanding that events won't go ahead unless we can meet our commitments to Police and Councils with regard to the control of riders and traffic.
That said, I'm sure it is 'a bit more relaxed' down here. We race on far less busy roads, and our numbers are a bit less than the Waratahs - we have just over 210 members at present (more to come as the winter road season gets closer) and are currently getting about 80 participants at weekend races and 60-70 participants at Tuesday criteriums.
We are affiliated with the Australian Veterans Cycling Council rather than the Australian Cycling Foundation, which I think has an impact on our Club membership fees - Canberra Cycling Club is ACF affliated and its fees are twice as much for a full licence. We have to pay additional fees to race in 'open' events.
Maybe it's time for an exchange progam! Peter comes down here to race pretty regularly, so a couple of us will have to return the favour sometime. I've done my 'hot lap' at Mt. Panorama and I like the sound of racing at Eastern Creek!